Tilting mechanism for containers, such as furnaces



J. R. WYATT. TILTING MECHANISM FOR CONTAINERS,

SUCH AS FURNACES.

APPLICATION FILED NOV.8, 1918.

Patented Oct. 3, 1922..

2 SHEETS,SHEET I.

J. R. WYATT.

TILTING MECHANISM FOR CONTAINERS SUGH AS FURNACES. APPLICATION FILEDNOV.8, 19l8.

. 4 309714 Patented Oct. 3, 1922.,

' SH ETS-SHEET 2- Patented Qct. 3, 1922.

JAMES R. WYATT, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE AJAXMETAL COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OFPENNSYLVANIA.

Application filed November 8, 1918. Serial No. 261,670.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES R. WYATT, a citizen of the United States,residing at 20241 S. 21st Street, Philadelphia, in the county ofPhiladelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new anduseful Tilting Mechanism for Containers, Such as Furnaces, of which thefollowingis a specification.

My invention relates to counter-balancing and tilting mechanism capableof being ap-.

plied to furnaces for melting metal but having a more generalapplication.

he purpose of my invention is to provide counter-balancing and tiltingmechanism which shall turn the container about a predetermined pointoutside of its center of gravity,'and preferably about the spout, .sothat the pouring point shall be as nearly fixed as possible.

A further purpose is to locate the bulk of the mechanism for tilting thecontainer.

fication and in the claims.

I have preferred to illustrate my invention by but one general formthereof, selecting therefor a form which in use has proved to be simple,practical, highly efiicient and inexpensive and which at the same timewell illustrates the principles thereof.

Figure 1 is a broken side elevation showing this preferred form of myinvention.

Figure l is a broken side elevation of a modification. K Figure 2 is asection Figure 1.

Figure 3 isa broken side elevation of the same structure with thefurnace in raised position.

Figure 4 is a front elevation of the structure in Figures 1 and 2 withpart of the counter-balancing weights broken away.

upon line 2--'2 of shaft is indicated at 11'. made up ofcounterweight-supporting arms In the drawing similar numerals indicatecorresponding parts. Though my invention is suited to the liftmg andtilting of any container which is desirably tilted about a point outsideof its center of gravity its greatest usefulness thus far has been foundin furnaces. As I have applied it to electric furnaces of the type shownin my Patent No. 1,201,671 of Oct. 17, 1916', I have preferred toillustrate it and describe it in connection with and in terms of such anelectric furnace but without any intention of limiting it to such usealone.

The furnace shown has been fully described in my patent. It will sufficeto say that it comprises a body 5 providing a pool, connecting with amember 6 providing a channel in which the metal is heated and circulatedby electric current induced by means of atransformer 7. The transformerwinding 8 is connected with the current supply by extensible leads notshown, permitting the tilting movement or is disconnected for pouring aspreferred. As my furnace maintains the electric current path duringpouring there is a considerable advantage in maintaining the current Howthen also. The spout is shown at 9 and the body, channel and spout aresuitably lined.

Describing the preferred construction In any pair of pedestals 10 Isupport a counterweight-lever shaft '11 rigidly secured to a pair oflevers 12, by screws 13 passing through bosses 1 1. The axis of the Thelevers 12 are 15 at one end and furnace-supporting arms 16-at the otherend.

The mechanism for turning the shaft illustrated comprises a worm wheel17, turned bya worm 18,-up0n shaft 19. Mitre gears 20 connect this shaftwith a control shaft 21' surmounted by hand wheel 22. For'clearness inillustration I have omitted the usual bearings for shafts 19 and 21. Thearms 1 15 of the counterweight levers, are connected at their ends by achannel bar 23, upon which separate counter-weights 24 may be placed.The weights are slotted upon their under sides to pass over the bar 23from above and remain in gravity alone. V

For adjustments not requiring as much additional weight as isrepresented by a position because of 105 "nace by two supporting bars28, one on each counterweight 24, I provide one or more slidingcounterweights 26, similarly slotted so as to fit over and slide uponthe arms 15 and secured in adjusted positions by any means, such as setscrews 27; with the purpose that the weight or weights 26 shall provideall intermediate counterweight adjulstments between that secured bydifferent weights 24.

The levers 12 are connected with the furside of the furnace, which arepivoted to the arms 16 of the levers, as by pins 29 having a common axis29', and to the'furnace by trunnions 30 having a common axis 30.Suitable split pins retain all such pivoted parts in position.

The bars 28 must be 'held in approxi-.

mately perpendicular position and this is conveniently taken care of byarms 31 which may be pivoted in the pedestal 10 about pins 32 having acommon axis 32,

-and to the bars 28 by pins 33 having a com- 'mon axis 33.

The bars 28 may be maintained in vertical position b making the spacingbetween axes 32' an 33 equal to that between axes 11 and 29, and thespacing between axes 32 and 11 equal to that 16 or the bottoms 34 ofbars 28 engage a' stop, as 35.

Where it is intended to support the entire weight of the furnace by thebars 28, the axis 30 is chosen so as to intersect a verticalline throughthe center of gravity of the furnace, preferably near the center ofgravity of the furnace when fully charged. If at least as high as thecenter of gravity of the fully charged furnace,

there will be no tendency of the furnace to swing when in the positionshown in Figure 1.

It will be obvious that the support of the furnace may be dividedbetween the bars 28 and some other bar, such as 36, or preferably barson opposite sides of the furnace by which the turning of the furnace maybe effected and I have shown such a construction inFigure 1 where thebars 28' are connected with the furnace about some other axes 30 whichdoes not pass'through the vertical line from the center of gravity ofthe furnace and the unbalanced weight of the furnace and content aresupported by bars 36'.

Whether the bars 36 or 36 be intended for tilting purposes chiefly, orfor supporting any considerable share of the weight of the "furnace, itwill be obvious that the strain (and possibly pressure) upon it willvary with variation in the center of gravity during the pouringoperation.

In either event, the bars 36 or 36, are pivoted to the furnace at oneend, as about trunnions 37 having a common axis 37 and to one of thearms, 16 and 31, preferably to the upper of these in order to reduce thelength of bars 36 or 36. I prefer to con-- nect the bars 36 or 36 withthe arms 16 or 31, as the case may be, by pins 38, having a common axis38', located between bars 28 and the pedestals, as shown, because thisis the intersection of the plane through axes 30 and 37 with the planethrough axes 11' and 32. The positions of these planes are shown bylines39 and 40 and the turning axis is located at 41, all in Figure 1. Byelemental design, the axis, at which there will be neither vertical norhorizontal movement, but only turning ,movement, may therefore be madeto pass through the outer end of the pouring spout, as shown in Figure1, or any other point desired such as the base of the pouring spout inFigure 1*. The fixing of the pouring oint greatly simplifies andfacilitates t e pouring, secures greater precision and safet and avoidsundue movement of the mol s.

I recognize that variations from parallelism of thie bars 28 and 36 andof the connecting parts forming this second parallelo-' gram would stillsecure desirable results including the same initial and final positionsof the spout with little movement between and that but one bar 36 may berequired. For some purposes it may be desirable to depart fromparallelism of the arms and bars respectively, or to alter the othersides of the quadrilaterals formed, in order to accelerate or retard therelative rate or vary the total movement of the parts of the furnace,all of which can be worked out readily to suit the conditions of anyequipment, or the whim or preference of any designer in view of theinformation given by me.

Under these circumstances, the overbalancing]weight of the content willtend to hold the furnace down in the position shown when fully chargedand during the heating operation. The furnace will therefore offer an opposing overbalance to the tilting operation by hand wheel 22. Thetilting of the furnace will take place coincidentally with'the lifting.Where enough of the content has been poured for the furnace andremaining content to be over-balanced the counterweighting will tend tolift the furnace. When the heat has been pouredapproximately as mucheffort upon hand wheel 22 will be required to lower the furnace as hadpreviously been required to raise it, a

The position shown in Figure 3 is selected to correspond with themaximum tilting for pourin for which the furnace is designed and wilnormally not permit draining of arms, supporting bars pivoted to thesearms anyI part of the channel.

. aving thus, described my invention,

what I claim as new and desire to secure. by

Letters Patent is:

1. In lifting and tilting mechanism, a pair of quadrilateral systemsofarms, bars and pivotal connections on each side of a furnace having partof one quadrilateral system forming part of the other, counterweightingmechanism for the system and a container forming one side of onequadrilateral system and lifted and tilted thereby.

2. In lifting and tilting mechanism for containers, a quadrilateralsystem of lifting, guiding arms and counter-weighting connections, incombination with a container and a quadrilateral system of bars andconnections interconnected with the first quadrilateral system to liftand tilt the container.

3. In tilting mechanism for pouring from a container, counterweightlevers terminating in lifting arms below the container, a container,approximately vertical supporting bars connected with the levers andcontamer, arms connected at one end with the bars to maintain them insubstantially vertical position and a tilting bar connected with thecontainer at one end and with one of the arms at the other end.

4. In tilting and pouring mechanism for containers, a pair of levershaving lifting arms, a pair of supportingbars on opposite sides of thecontainer, connected with the arms at one end of each and with thecontainer at the other end thereof, a container, guiding arms formaintaining the supporting bars against undue swinging movement,counterweighting mechanism for the system and a tilting connectionbetween one of the arms and the container.

5. In tilting and pouring mechanism for containers, a container, a pairof levers on opposite sides of the container and having lifting arms,bars pivotally connected to these arms and to the container, guiding andside supportin arms for these bars substan tially parallel with thelifting arms, counterweighting mechanism for the system and a barpivotally connected with one of the arms and with the containercooperating with the first bars in tilting the container.

6. In tilting and pouring mechanism for containers, a container, leverstherefor having lifting arms, connections therefrom supporting the majorpart of the weight of the container, guiding and side supporting armsfor the connections, substantially parallel with the lifting arms,counterweighting mechanism for the system and a connection from thecontainer to one of the arms engagirig it at an intermediate point.

- 7. n tilting and pouring mechanism for containers, a container, leversadapted to turn-about an axis and having supporting at the other end,guiding and side supporting arms having fixed pivot points at one end,connected with the bars at the other end and substantially parallel withthe lifting arms, counterweighting mechanism for the system and atilting connection between one of the arms and the containersubstantially parallel with the supporting bars and located between thesupporting bars and the fixed pivot points.

9. In tilting and pouring mechanlsm for containers, a container, a pairof levers, a connection between them joining them at one end of eachlever so as to cause them to move together, the lovers being pivoted atan intermediate point and extending in the form of supporting arms attheir other ends, supporting bars pivoted to these arms at the ends andto the container, guiding arms having fixed pivots at one end, extendingsubstantially parallel to the supporting arms and pivoted at their otherends to the bars, counterweighting mechanism for the ing arms at one endand to the container at the other end.

10. In tilting and pouring mechanism for containers, a container, a pairof levers, a connection between them oining them at one end of eachlever so as to cause them to move together, the levers beingpivoted atan intermediate point and extending in. the form of supporting arms attheir other ends, supporting bars pivoted to these arms at the ends andto the container, guiding arms having fixed pivots at one end, extendingsubstantially parallel to the supporting arms and pivoted at their otherends to the bars, countrweighting mechanism for the system and tiltingbars pivoted to the guiding arms at one end and to the container at theother end, the planes through the axes of the different arms and throughthe container pivots of the bars, respectively, determining the axis ofrevolution of the container.

11. In tilting and pouring mechanism for containers, a container, a pairof levers, a

connection betweenv them joining them at one end of each lever so as tocause them to move together, the levers being pivoted at an intermediatepoint and extending in the form of supporting arms at their other ends,

supporting bars pivoted to these arms at the ends and to the container,guiding arms having fixed pivots at one end, extending substantiallyparallel to the supporting arms and pivoted at their other ends to thebars and tilting bars, counterweighting mechanism for the system pivotedto the guiding I arms at one end and to the container at the other end,the planes through the axes'of the different arms and through thecontainer pivots of the bars, respectively, passing approximatelythrough the pouring spout of the container.

12. Acounterweighting and tiltingmechanism for one side of a furnacecomprising a pair of parallel arms one above the other and both havingfixed pivot points, worm wheel tilting means for one of the arms, an.

counterweighting connections for the other side of the furnace.

13. Acounterweighting and tilting mechanism for pouring from-furnaces,comprising sets of parallel arm and bar constructions on opposite sidesof the furnace, each made up of a pivot points, tilting means for one ofthe arms, a counterweighting extension from one of the arms, aconnecting bar between the parallel arms, extended and pivoted to thefurnace and a second bar connected with one of the parallel arms andpivotedto the furnace at a distance from the pivot point of the extendedarm.

14. Counterweighting and tilting mechanism for a furnace comprisingpairs of parallel arms spaced and pivoted at fixed pivot points, oneabove the other, a line through the pivot points cutting the axis aboutwhich the furnace turns, counterweighting extensions from one of saidarms of each pair, a shaft connecting the counterweighted arms, worm andworm wheel tilting means for said shaft and arms, a connection betweenthe parallel arms on each side of the furnace extended and pivoted tothe furnace and a connection between the furnace and one of saidparallel arms pivoted to the furnace, so that a line through the furnacepivot points will intersect the intended axis of turning of the furnace.

15. In lifting and tilting mechanism, a container, a lever liftingmechanism therefor, counterweight arms for said lever system, atransverse connection between the outer ends of the arms, counterweightson the transverse connection and counterweights on the arms adjustabletoward and JAMES R. WYATT.

pair of' parallel arms having fixed

